


Giants

by mikeymagee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Black Character(s), Black Family, Character Study, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Male Character of Color, blackinfanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2391389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikeymagee/pseuds/mikeymagee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To be small in a world of giants</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giants

I had lost track of how long I had sat there amongst the dirty tables, and clinking glasses. This was a café, a little restaurant tucked away in a corner. Ace’s Places, was the sign that hung above the banister, keeping the night’s embrace away. 

I needed that. I had spent far too long in the dark, and now I had found a little oasis, a small patch of light I could bathe in until it was time to move on once again.

The waitress came by me with a full pot of coffee, she averted her eyes, perhaps too shy (or too scared) too look. I didn’t blame her. To her, I must have looked like some kind of monster from a horror show. Half my face was burned, my clothes were torn in so many places. I had to pick through old trash cans to find something that would cover the Cybertek leg, and cover my arms. I wasn’t ready to explain those yet.

“Refill?” she asked, her hands trembling as she spoke. 

I smiled, and nodded. “Thank you,” I said.

It’s always important to thank your server. I always told Ace that, when someone brings you a basket of bread, or a glass of milk, you thank them. 

Ace, those small moments seem so far away now. Simple joys of getting dressed for school, gazing at action figures in store windows, or just cracking an old book with him in his bed…waiting to be read to.

What exactly did I have left?

I rubbed my face, my palm grazing over burnt skin. What was I now? What exactly would Ace think of me? I know he is safe…for once, I am secure in that knowledge. He can go to school and not worry. He can play in the park and not glance over his shoulder. 

“Dad?” I can still hear his voice, even when I close my eyes. Even when I marched to Hydra’s commands, I still heard his voice. “Can you read me a story tonight?”

“Of course I can.” A simple moment. Ace in bed, his covers up to his chin. His eyes as bright as fireflies, keeping the darkness at bay. “Which one will it be tonight?”

“Jack and the Beanstalk.” 

That was his favorite. 

“You got it man.” I’d reach over, grab the worn picture book and begin the story. 

Giants were meant to be make believe, the stuff of children’s dreams. And yet, after New York, everything changed. Giants were gods in red capes and winged helmets. Giants were iron suited businessmen who flew around the world. Giants were living legends that’s were once lost to frozen time.

And giants were monsters who rained fire down upon my son. Giants were creatures who took my wife away from my arms. Giants were men who promised an out for me and my son…only to lock us both away, to never see the light of a restaurant’s sign. 

“Sir?”

I turned to see my waitress (I believe her name tag said Tammy) holding that same pot of coffee (now half empty).   
“Y-yes?” I rubbed my fingertips against my eyes, “Is something the matter?”

She laughed, “I-I was about to ask you the same thing.”

I shook my head now, and scratched my cybernetic leg. It didn’t itch, I didn’t even feel it half the time. But I needed to confirm that I was still who I believed I was. I needed the cool reassurance of flesh against almost-flesh. 

Giants crushed everything and everyone beneath their feet, with no notice of those left behind to pick up the pieces. The tiny villagers who combed through the wreckage, trying to piece together what once was their lives. 

Jack was never wary of Giants or beanstalks. He climbed to heights no man could have dreamed of. He wandered through castles that were not his to peer into. He took treasures that were not his to hold. He was a conqueror in a world of giants. 

Cybertek was supposed to be a beanstalk. A staircase to another world, a place that would be better for my son and myself.

But what happened? 

I flagged down the waitress one more time, my arm hung in the air like a flag pole. 

“Yes sir?” Tammy asked. 

“May I have order another slice of pie?”

She smiled, nodded her head, and said “Coming right up.”

She turned around, and her skirt swung in the breeze. 

Even as I turned to my thoughts, I could still feel the cold glare of eyes on the back of my neck, and the side of my face. Couldn’t people find something else to stare at? What about the static infused television set that set atop the counter? Or the whizzing cars passing by outside? 

No…they wanted to stare at my face. Even when they whispered, I could still hear them, a little gift from Cybertek.

“What the hell happened to that guy?”

“Shhh. Not so loud. He’ll hear.” 

“Do you think he got hurt during the New York thing last year?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not gonna ask him. He seems….off.”

They stared and jeered and wondered. I couldn’t blame them, my son would have done the same thing. Curious of the strange man in tattered clothes who blew through the door like a ghost, and sat down. 

“He kind of looks like a monster.”

A monster. And just what would these people know of monsters? What would they know of broken bones, and failed tech that scratched at a man’s humanity? 

…but they weren’t wrong. 

“Sir?” A warm slice of Apple pie was placed in front of me, and I had even noticed. “Will that be all?” 

I nodded, and thanked my waitress once again. Always say thank you.

Through some monstrous ambition I had become a giant. Steel leg, cold fingers of metal and wire. An eye that never saw in human vision. I no longer had to ask for a way out. I could take it. I could break down bone as if it were cardboard. I could crush those who stood in my way. My scarred face had become a calling card, a promise soaked in flame. I am a giant. 

A giant who…scares little boys.

“Ace…”

And what boy wants a giant for a father? Children are supposed to feel skin when they kiss their fathers good night, not burned grievances. And what was I now? The monster who took lives instead of saving them.

I shoved my apple pie into my face. Most of it didn’t even make it into my mouth, what had I taught Ace about table manners? Did that no longer apply to me now that I am half of what I was? What kind of world would Ace grow up in? A place where giants roamed free? Where monsters are real? Where the world is so cruel, that not even the safety of blankets are comforting.

I am a giant now....yet I feel as though I could be crushed by boots too big to measure. 

I raised my hand into the sky, a flag post for those who wish to trace my journey. “Check please.” 

What I did, I did for my son. And what I do now, I do for him as well.


End file.
